Shield is too easy to use as a get out of crap free card. It should gradually ramp up upon use to make it something a heavy must ACTIVELY PLAN TO USE AND EXECUTE PROPERLY rather then a reactionary "Oh **** health bars in red cause someone snuck up behind me and is blasting me in the head better hit F and spray wildly while turning in a 180" Strong against everything infantry and vehicle. Sure no sustain on ammo, but you can bring med packs for health issues (like you'll have those if you're good w/ shield)... but lots of classes have ammo issues. Heavy hitting anti-infantry weapons with high magazines and high damage and high accuracy... not to mention the old anti-vehicle rocket launchers, some of which are lock on and thus eliminate the need to aim. The heavy assault doesn't make any compromises in exchange for it's massive anti-everything set up, when someone gets the jump on the heavy, often times the heavy can simply hit their shield, start firing and turn towards the red indicator for a win, even while being constantly shot the whole time. The greater majority of the playerbase runs heavy assault on account of this general bias towards making the heavy as strong as possible with what seems no weaknesses.
Cloak is too easy to use as a get out of crap free card. It should gradually decrease visibility upon use to make it something a infiltrator must ACTIVELY PLAN TO USE AND EXECUTE PROPERLY. Fixed that for you. Ah yeah, the overshield makes us slow as a brick and lit like a christmas tree. We cant cloak, we cant jumpjet, we cant repair or heals others. So wet got a shield worth 2-3 bullets and a rocket launcher. Perfectly fine. Combined arms and such. HA are supposed to be good at 1on1 situations.
Respone: You mean like it already is? Not to mention it's cloaking is of debatable usefulness, unlike shield. Response: It doesn't slow you down, and the fact that you are more visible is countered by the fact that it shields from the damage you might then take. LA, Infil, Medic, Max all can't repair either? So what? LA, Infil, Engi, Max can't heal others or revive either? So what? Are you saying heavy should be given the heal / revive or repair tool as well? How about ammo packs also? The shield blocks much more then 2-3 bullets and the rocket launchers give you anti-vehicle capability, much more so then any other class, except maybe engi w/ his array of mines C4 and AV Turret who has to set up shop so to speak to use his stuff (making himself a wonderful stationary target on that turret and w/ no overshield). Infiltrators have NO DIRECT ANTI-VEHICLE CAPABILITY, unlike every other class. So if anything infil SHOULD have the advantage in a 1v1 situation and not heavy. Where currently the heavy is just best all over the board.
Should have stopped reading there. And dont blame heavies when Infiltrators are the only class without AV capabilities (well you can hack AV turrets und pull vehicles in enemy bases so its not entirely true). And the amount of bullets blocked depends of course on the bullets. The NMG also depletes when not being hit (like the vanguard shield), so hit him once, he will activtate the shield, get out of sight and engage again when he has run out of the shield capacity. Or sneak up on him. It wont help vs. an SMG close up from behind.
In case you have not noticed HA is a front line assault trooper and he should have advantage in 1v1 against most classes. If you want to have an advantage against HA face to face,pull a MAX and if you want to take him out as infiltrator then snipe him,mine his path or attack from rear or flank.
Its popular because many people dont like supportive roles and its the easiest class for beginners. But looking at my own stats, playing medic oder engineer yields far more XP than playing heavy. But im not overly fond of support classes. Its like in RPGS, I always prefer the big guy with the two-handed sword, even if the mage or healer would be more rewarding.
So a dedicated fighter with no support functions is best at fighting? Yes, that doesn't make sense at all.
Just, lol. Heavy assault is meant to be the main force of infantry, that's why he's made to handle every classical situations: 1 V 1, AT, large zerg situations... Apart from the xam that's the only tank Infantry has to do the main job: Killing every sucker and staying alive. HA will hold the center ground while LA flank and infils... infiltrate, well. They are meant to win 1v1 encounter since they are meant to SURVIVE in bigger battles. And for the whole "180 turn OHK" it is just not true, or you just can't aim properly, or the HA is skilled. The shield is really balanced, it can't soak lots of bullets, dosn't help to run from explosions... Just note that when it depletes, the slow effect last longer than the soaking effect, so much for your advantage of soaking more. A running shielded HA is just to easy a target and kill. If you die to HA, don't confront them head to head, and if they can turn 180° while being continuously shot at, AND having activated the shield after the first bullets landed, for god's sake, l2p. Nothing left to add.
Well I am doing my final tour as HA and I find that I can still go down pretty quick if caught un-awares - I always thought that the HA shield was an [I WIN] button and it is though it's not a [cannot fail] button. If it's gonna be gimped it needs to be done when I have completed my tour - I have been putting up with heavy scrubs for 7 - 8 months so I want my payback.
Did it ever come to your mind that the HA is not overpowered, but instead you're simply bad at the game?
They're the standard vehicle smashing class, ofcourse they're also strong against infantry, I think L2P is in applicable here.
If they're supposed to be the anti-vehicle class, then their shield should protect against vehicles. As it is they are the go to class for the try-hards out there.
Use the strongest weapons for certain situations, in CQB use a Pump action (or a auto if you like those more ) shotgun those will tear trough ppl, in general just be sure that you don't face them directly.
TTK in this game lays around 1 second, nobody have reaction good enough to react properly in half of second left after network latency. Surprise attack from infiltrator = death unless it's bad infiltrator who don't know how to aim. Maybe you just bad, or, maybe, he heard how you de-cloaked and was ready for you strike. No matter how good my enemy, if he standing unaware and I start shooting before he spotted me he is dead, no matter witch class or weapon I use.
HA shields are supposeed to soak a certain amount of dmg while taking their mobility. Seems fair to me. I die a lot against them, but I don't like the handling of the whole class. I play mostly LA so any ability slowing me down feels wrong to me... yes I get killed head on against HA most of the time. But the shield doesn't last long (damage- and time-wise) so avoiding this guy as long as he glows and then trying to kill him. Fair, balanced, L2P
